With Paddls as a training school, Gijs is one of the few who was admitted to the SAP Academy. We are proud that he will continue his career at SAP! Gijs tells us about his position and future at SAP.
How has your growth path at Paddls been?
I started almost 4 years ago as Executive Marketeer ( Junior Inside Sales ) for Microsoft and Capgemini iBabs. After that I quickly grew to Sales Marketeer (Inside Sales). Then From Breda I got more projects and more responsibility. For 2.5 years I have been Executive Sales. This means that you are seconded externally to a customer. You then work together with the marketing and sales team to build a new pipeline. I was first seconded to Citrix and now for a year and a half at SAP.
What exactly does your role at SAP entail?
At SAP I am a Digital Demand Nurture Agent. This portugal phone number library means that you are the linchpin between Marketing and Sales. At SAP I am linked to the Database and Data Management & Analytics units. This involves topics such as data, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and robotics. The work is very varied. For example, I follow up leads that we receive from online channels, events and Round Tables. In addition, I have the freedom to see which campaigns I want to set up with the different teams. I then look at google analytics is the answer which theme we can set up a campaign around. Then I select which accounts belong to that. I am going to profile these. Who are the contacts, how am I going to approach them, with which message, with which content? That is great fun to do and you also learn a lot from it. You do need to have sufficient product knowledge and understand what you are talking about, otherwise you cannot do this.
What do you really need to be able to do to make that position at SAP a success? From Breda
You need to be able to work independently, take initiative and be somewhat creative. You need to be able to make the connection between the products that SAP has and the challenges that SAP customers have. Of course, you need to be able to have a conversation at management level or higher.
How has Paddls been able to contribute to this? From Breda
I gained a lot of experience at Paddls, including talking to customers. That definitely contributed. I studied Commercial Economics before this and had no sales experience when I came here. I quickly grew internally: from Executive Marketeer (Junior Inside Sales) to Executive Sales in 1.5 years.
Then I was seconded to Citrix. There belgium numbers I learned what it is like to work within a corporate. That is a different world than the SME. At Citrix I started working independently for a customer for the first time. Together with the team leader, also seconded from Paddls, I had to set up the entire demand generation again. You then learn to think independently and to switch with internal stakeholders such as Marketing Managers and Partner Managers.
